Gut Feelings (Stromatolith)

2016

Hendry, Holly

Holly Hendry is interested in defining the architecture of spaces by exploring the possibilities of surface, colour and density, which is inherent in the wide range of materials she uses in her installations. The shifting scales and unusual positioning of her works encourage visitors to consider sculpture in dialogue with their surroundings, whilst also investigating the notion of absence, in the form of hollow spaces or voids.
Gut Feelings (Stromatolith), 2016 is a geological-style cross section that references undersides, be it subterranean or subcutaneous. It deals with ideas of preservation and putrefaction, ingestion, consumption, accumulation and compression. The sculpture consists of metal props, rock salt, marble chunks and comically sculptural dog chew bones. The white metal framework around the piece supports the cast sections that appear to have been sliced, implying that they are part of a larger system or object. Shapes like bite marks can be discerned in the metal, presenting it as a malleable thing that breaks the rules of the material’s usual properties and function. With organic and synthetic interspersed and their detail exaggerated, the work speaks of accretion, and the idea of the materials that outlive us building up in the world, with nowhere to go.

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